


The King's Son

by NotThatSpooky



Category: Deltarune (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Platonic Relationships, lesser dad is best dad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 00:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16776382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotThatSpooky/pseuds/NotThatSpooky
Summary: It’s not his place to stand between the king and his son, but Rouxls Kaard has a job to do, and that includes keeping Lancer happy.





	The King's Son

**Author's Note:**

> I really love the dynamic between Lancer and Rouxls, so I wanted to make a fic to showcase how I like to think it all started (and eventually its progression).

It was becoming a bit of a pattern, finding the young prince downtrodden after a visit with his father.

It didn’t used to be this way.

Before the Spade King’s beloved Knight appeared, when the other kings still had power, things were different. The King of Spades was even kind.

Lancer’s antics were usually met with tough love, sure, but the you could see the love was there.

Now Rouxls Kaard was the only Darkner left the King seemed to trust, the only one he felt sure wouldn’t betray him and the only other left with even a shred of authority.

But as the new Duke of Puzzles, puzzles, as it happened, were barely the half of it. Nearly every “lesser” responsibility fell on him, from payroll to laundry – anything the King saw as beneath his royal highness, including more often than not, his own son.

Tonight was probably the first time Rouxls had heard the boy actually cry like this. He was a resilient little lad, too naive for his own good, perhaps, but resilient all the same. So hearing his sniffles echoing from the barren halls caught him by surprise.

He’d gotten up from his desk and peaked around the open door to see what the fuss was about, then he saw the boy’s back to him, his short, pudgy frame shuffling away. It’d looked like he was carrying something.

“Lancer? Waitedst one moment,” Rouxls called, but hesitated to pursue him. While Rouxls now had the burden of the boy’s well-being almost squarely on his shoulders, it wasn’t his place, and the two weren’t exactly close… Like many, he’d watched Lancer grow up from a distance in court. It was only now they spent any time together, enough that he’d even started calling him “Lesser Dad” – a highly offensive title coming from anyone else.

But he had work to do and Lancer would have to wait.

When he was finally caught up on the managing of castle affairs, it occurred to him the prince probably hadn’t eaten…except maybe that strange…salsa?…he liked to hide in things.

With a stretch and a sigh, Rouxls descended the stairs and scrounged up some worms from the dirt bucket he kept in the kitchen’s refrigerator.

He took the lift back up and knocked on the spade-shaped door frame of Lancer’s room.

“Lancer?”

Noise like rustling answered him and he dipped his head in.

The boy kept his hooded face fixed on his knees while he sat on the floor beside the bed. Rouxls cocked a white eyebrow but shrugged it off… Nothing the prince did should surprise him by now.

“Mine apologies fore neglecting thou dinner. I broughtst thou favorite worms as recompense.” He presented a bowl of the squirming things to him, which he took gently and set on his lap.

Then a quiet “thanks…” and he wiped at his nose.

Rouxls straightened, his hands clasped behind his back when he noticed the boy seeming to just stare at it.

He knew he shouldn’t pry, but if something was wrong with the prince, it would ultimately be on _his_ head.

“…Ist thou alright? Thou art not eating…and thou seemed…displeased after meeting with ye king earlier.”

Lancer didn’t hesitate to bobble his head, though somehow Rouxls found it less than convincing. He should drop it. The king’s relationship with his own son was none of his business, after all. He had no relation to either of them. He wasn’t even royalty.

But as he thought this, he noticed something off about the room – Lancer’s bike wasn’t tucked in his bed, as it usually was at this hour. Perhaps he’d lost it. Maybe that was why he seemed upset.

“Wherest is thou bike?”

He saw the boy’s blue fingers tense around the rim of the bowl but he just shrugged.

“Ah, not to worry,” Rouxls insured, flipping his white hair proudly. See? He was better at this care-taking business than he thought!

“I shallst send ye guards to locate and retrieveth it at once!” Satisfied he’d found the solution, he turned to leave, the heels of his boots clicking resolutely against the floor on his way out.

Lancer reached a hand towards him, opened his mouth, then drew back.

“Lesser Dad…” he said.

Hearing his strange nickname, Rouxls swallowed a groan and spun back around.

“Yes?”

He set the bowl on the ground and lifted up the skirt of the bed, reaching under to reveal the twisted remnants of his bike.

“Oh.”

Rouxls wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t understand. Why would he hide his broken bike under the bed? Surely Lancer would come wailing at him to fix it like he did that time the horn stopped working…

“Whatst happened?” he eventually asked. “Art thou hurt? Dost thou needst thine doctor?”

“No, no. I thought it would be funny to surprise my dad by crashing my bike into him while he was napping on the throne. And it was!” he explained with a smile that quickly withered back into a frown.

“But then he stomped on it…and then it wasn’t funny anymore…”

Rouxls felt his eyes widen but he kept his mouth firmly shut.

_Oh, dear…_

“I said I was sorry. I really didn’t mean to make him so mad. When I did it to you, you thought it was funny!”

He explicitly remembered he had _not_ thought that at all, but he’d forced something of a laugh anyway, despite his back having nearly been thrown out.

“Anyway,” he continued, shoulders sinking as he slumped back against the bed, “he yelled at me and said I would never be allowed to go near a bike again.”

“I…I see…” Rouxls’ eyes shifted between Lancer and the bike. The prince loved that bike more than anything. The king knew that. Surely, he hadn’t meant it…

“Perhaps,” he began and cleared his throat. “Perhaps I wilt speaketh with thine father. I do not thinketh ye king truly meant those words. He has a temper, thou knows. Heat of the moment, I am positive.”

In truth, he wasn’t so sure, but he had to try. Lancer without his bike was not Lancer… Even if he did like using it to run over his feet or ram into his shins.

Finally, Lancer met his eyes. “Really?” And for the first time all evening, he seemed to perk up.

“Of course,” he said, but before he could finish, the boy’s arms were wrapped around his knees.

He rubbed his face against Rouxls’ pant legs. “Thank you! Thank you!” He looked up at the duke’s startled face.

“I’ll make some extra spicy salsa just for you! I promise!”

Tentatively, Rouxls pat the boy’s head, “Erm, that’s…quite alright. Tis mine pleasure. Really.”

He maneuvered himself out of Lancer’s deceptively strong grip and brushed off his uniform.

“Now, thou shouldst eat and go to bed. I wilt speaketh to thine father tomorrow, alright?”

That familiar, goofy grin spread across Lancer’s face. “Okay!” Then as if finally realizing how hungry he was, he hopped into bed with his bowl of worms and slurped them up like spaghetti.

“Goodst night,” Rouxls said with a bow and Lancer paused his messy eating just long enough to say it back.

“'Night, Lesser Dad!”

As he left, he felt his pulse quicken and his stomach turn. The Spade King’s word was final, that much the entire kingdom knew, but maybe, just maybe he could change his mind. The Knight convinced him of things all the time, after all. It couldn’t be that hard. Besides, he would just be doing his job – he _had_ been instructed to keep the prince happy, so that’s exactly what he intended to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I am planning on writing a part 2. I don't know when, but I'd like to show Rouxls growing as the father figure we all know he can and needs to be for our boy Lancer!  
> Please let me know how you think I did in portraying these characters or anything you liked/disliked about this in general, what you'd like to see going forward, etc... Basically, any feedback is helpful ;)


End file.
